Students will study Italian literature of the 20th century. Students will critically analyze internationally renowned literary texts in the Italian language. Authors include Luigi Pirandello, Filippo Tommaso Marinetti, Gabriele D'Annunzio, Primo Levi, Salvatore Quasimodo, Giuseppe Ungaretti, Eugenio Montale, Pier Paolo Pisolini, Umberto Eco, and others. Students will read from these author's works and engage in a historical, literary, and rhetorical analysis of them while determining techniques of composition. Students will be expected to actively participate and contribute to class discussion. The course will be conducted in Italian; participants will do all written and oral work in Italian. A research paper will be required.